« 020 ⇢ EVENT020.EXE »

[reparator]

Who: Everyone who was once in Cerealia, plus some guest stars
When: OOC: 10/01 - 10/12 ; IC: 3/15 - 3/21
Where: The wide, vast jungles of Tellus. Cerealia is nowhere to be found
What: A special reward frees everyone from the clutches of Cerealia; too bad nobody's competent around here.
Rating/Warning: PG-13: Some scary images, some violence. Please let the mods know if the rating goes up or the log needs to be locked!

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//event020.EXE

It is a quiet day in mostly reconstructed Cerealia. The robots are busily running into walls that were not there before, the Cybuddy bees are buzzing...and CERES has still not said a word. Attempting to contact them still gets the User Offline error. Strange... But who cares if CERES is offline? After all, they are the cruel and tyrannical captors. A Cerealia without them must be better than a Cerealia with them. So there's nothing to worry about on this fine, peaceful day. Or, at least, that's what it seems like, when suddenly there's a voice in everyone's head. A chosen few may recognize the voice, for they will have heard it before, but to the vast majority, it is brand new. Looks like someone has been saved, and a reward granted... and no, you don't have a single choice in the matter. Your heroism will be remembered, lost and stolen souls. You have saved me, and so now, I shall save you. All of you.

//SCENARIOS.EXE

PHASE I [ day one ] It happens so quickly. One moment you’re in the colony, going about your daily life, and the next, you’re… floating. A moment later, every player character from the colony is transported with a wisp of fresh air to...somewhere very very different. The distance is far, but it is covered in what must have only been a scant moment, and it’s clear somehow, especially to air characters, that it was Caeli’s doing that brought everyone there. There, naturally, being right in the middle of the jungle. Everyone is then unceremoniously dropped. You may land on a tree, or in a patch of poison mushrooms (no really, look out for the colorful plant life, it’s probably poisonous) or in the river. There are some strange insects of all sorts and types, some of which have some uncomfortable side effects if you’re bitten, such as swelling or the uncomfortable urge to go hug the nearest person, and there are strange flowers everywhere, some of which glow only in the dark of night or the shade of trees. It is dreadfully humid, however, and a little hard to breathe--unless you’re of the air disposition. Either way, you’ve certainly landed somewhere fantastical, so take some time to get used to your surroundings. It shouldn’t take too long to find everyone else, hopefully. PHASE II [ day two ] Of course, this far into the jungle, and making this much noise, it was only inevitable before some company was attracted. Some are clearly dangerous, some are peaceful as can be and some are somewhere in between; approach at your own risk. Either way, these monsters are all drawn to larger groups of people and a lot of noise, so it may be best to keep quiet...though the ones that keep their distance may be even more concerning. Everyone is certainly being stalked at one point or another in the jungle -- and at night, there are eyes watching from the darker parts of the trees. PHASE III [ day three ] But perhaps if you follow some of those monsters deeper into the woods, you will stumble across an old, run down village of sorts. It looks as though time and the jungle has overtaken it. Exploring it will reveal plenty of homes that were clearly lived in however, by families and by people of all sorts. There are empty rooms, covered in dust, and a central village fire, long gone out. Small knick-knacks and various objects can be found… if you want to steal from the dead, you know. It’s a little rude. It appears they led a simple, peaceful life, however; most notably, there is no technology to be found. And if The Bridge catches you doing it, she will look incredibly sad and ask you to put everything back in its proper place before she goes back to looking very irritated at Caeli. You may overhear words about how this “isn’t the right place” and Caeli’s unrepentant, “It is only a few hundred miles”. Looks like something went a little wrong in the transportation process. Time to camp out for the night, perhaps. And your CereVices don’t get any reception out here, so no surfing the internet for you. If you try to connect to the internet, for some reason the device starts playing a song. Was that programmed…? PHASE IV [ day four ] By the fourth day, it’s pretty clear that you’re going to be stuck here for a bit. Pestering Caeli or Maris gets nothing, while the Bridge still can’t be approached for pretty good reasons. So… you’ll just have to make the best of it while they figure out their next approach. Time to figure out how to camp with few supplies and even fewer nice places to sleep. Maybe try to make a fire (though it’s incredibly difficult, considering how muggy it is here) or try to find some bugs to eat (ew gross). Of course, you can try hunting, but the prey doesn’t look too friendly, so be careful not to become the prey yourself. The same goes for fishing, it seems. Some of the trees are poisonous, some of the grasses will cause unfortunate rashes, and some vines will lash out to grab at people (especially colorful ones); basically, this is an entirely untamed alien jungle, so it may not be the fun camping trip you'd like. Time to work together to survive out here, at least for a little longer. It’s your time to shine. This is Person Versus Wild. PHASE V [ day six ] On day six, the jungle goes utterly silent. The monsters and animals disappear. The extra friends poof away hastily and suddenly. Maris and the Bridge fall silent (though Caeli admittedly continues floating there as ever). If anyone approaches them to ask, they'll just say that "she is coming". And soon, she does appear. She moves slowly, lacking in feet; they are roots, as though that of a tree. Nonetheless, she has no troubles with moving forward, slow bit by bit. She does not speak, not at first, and behind her, trotting lightly through the woods, there is another. Both feel strongly of spiritual energy, just like Maris and Caeli. And eventually, after observing the people gathered, they can be spoken to. BONUS [ day ??? ] After spending some time in the jungle, emotions might be running a bit amuck. And those emotions might bring some unexpected...friends. Yes, let's go with friends. Because if a character is typically grumpy, gloomy, stoic, lineface, or anything along those lines, they may find themselves followed by a bright, happy bird. That bird feeds off of those emotions, and will just cheerfully follow around any lineface character for as long as possible. Or until they smile. The birds are otherwise harmless, chirping happily every now and then and following them around like a friendly shadow. Happy, cheerful, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, energetic characters, on the other hand, will soon find themselves followed by... a different friend. Or maybe a handful of them. It depends on how cheerful they are. Either way, these creatures feed off of happiness and fun, but they will also chew on hair or an ear if they're allowed to get that close, making horrifying, chittering noises as they follow anyone who is in a good mood. [ Remember to apply proper warnings on threads with sensitive or inappropriate material and do let a mod know if your thread careens off into maiming or canoodling so we can lock the log. ]

//RUN.EXE

Welcome to Cerealia's October event! Please visit the OOC information here, and should you have any questions, feel free to ask them here! You can also check the FAQ for more general inquiries. This event will last for the month of October, or IC 3/15 to 3/30. This log will last from 10/01 to 10/12 or IC 3/15 to 3/21. Should this event log hit Captcha, there is an all-purpose overflow here. Please treat this like a jungle mingle log, and feel free to make your own logs in estoria in the jungle as well! You'll be here for a little while, so go crazy and get some exploring in. Feel free to contact the mods if you have any questions on what can be found in the jungle in any given area. Thank you!

Comments

[complices]

➟ phase v

[ It seems the resident Fire and Earth spirits are relatively open to communication -- or, well, the Fire one is. The fox-shaped fire spirit trots around eagerly, sticking his nose into everything, so it shouldn't be too hard to get his attention.

And following along after him, slowly and implacably, there is the one Caeli and Maris obviously only referred to as "her". Her gaze sweeps over anyone in her path, before she carries on without a word, unless stopped.

At least Ardeo is there to keep up a cheerful string of commentary. ]

Look at all of these people! Some of them have already left me offerings! They are probably good people, except for the bad ones, so I think we should help them. More than the Bridge already has, I mean.

[ A pause to see if Occidi will respond.

She doesn't. Ardeo seems unperturbed, continuing to trot and chat eagerly. ]

One of mine gave me sparkly things!

[ Approach? ]

---

Comment here if you'd like to talk to Ardeo and/or Occidi! You will likely get one or the other, because they're not too interested in sticking together. They're both open to conversation but there's no assurances that the conversation will last long or bring anything of worth, depending on what is said; they're on a mission, after all!

[adornmental]

[THIS OTHER SPIRIT IS REALLY INTIMIDATING, HONESTLY... But Kashuu knows better than to offend intimidating spirits, so even though she doesn't seem very chatty, he'll dip his head a little in a respectful gesture.]

Um— hi. [Suddenly he's feeling even more self-conscious about, you know, looking like he's been sloshing around in a jungle for almost a week. Why Do These Things Happen™. Still, even though he kind of wants to hide his face behind his hands, he has to talk to this chatterbox... Unlike the very regal and mostly unfamiliar one, this one is cute as hell. Kashuu is instantly endeared.]

Are you like, the spirit that shrine in the shopping area belongs to?

[psycholawgy]

[ athena's definitely gone to the shrine to ''pray'' and leave some tiny offerings, and she's been looking forward to speaking with the fire spirit?????????? for quite some time now. mostly because maris is a jerk and has dowsed her in water so many times a couple weeks back. ]

Um... hello? Can I speak with you?

[faithfulflame]

[Well, how can she ignore this? Rei, like Athena, had taken the time to visit the little shrine, and been back several times with minor offerings and the like, even taking up tending it. It's what a shrine maiden did, after all.

She beams at the sight of the cheerful Fire spirit when it wanders near, and she can't help but just be delighted.]

Well, I certainly hope you like some of the things I've left. I was only guessing, though.

[souperb]

[ ... in some ways, the little spirit reminds her of a mix of two spirits she knew and commanded, a long, long time ago. gnome, with some of the energy of sylph, the fire of efreet. it's nostalgic. the larger one... undine and efreet, the earth of gnome.

that might be why she speaks with less tsuntsun than she might offer humans here. for ardeo, the smallest hints of amusement in her tone: ]

Full of energy, aren't you?

[braavado]

[Having a pretty good guess who the two newcomers are, Korra offers them the same bow that she would have offered their shrines in the districts--hands pressed together, head lowered slightly.

With air and water already properly labeled in her mind, identifying which element belongs to which spirit after that is easy enough. Korra glances at Occidi before leaning down slightly to greet the fire spirit.]

If Maris and Caeli are water and air, I'm guessing that makes you fire and earth?

[deontology]

[In general, he's really not interested in the fire fox. But the other one...well, it's not hard to piece together that she must be the one everyone is referring to as "she".

He's curious, so sue him. So as soon as Ardeo is off focused on yapping at someone else, Sousei is approaching Occidi, posture as military straight as ever. But he was raised to be polite to spirits, and now is definitely not going to change that.]

Good day. It is an honor to meet you. [ Probably. ] You are the one they were all talking about, I suspect. Why is that?

[Why are you such a big deal?]

[prosecutory]

[Edgeworth hates this place. He doesn't think this is the way he wants to be saved, heck no. But when he sees these two spirits, seemingly out of place in the wilderness, he quickens his pace toward them. He knows Ardeo's name from Rei, but only knows Occidi as "the Bridge". And he was supposed to be one of the Bridge's, whatever that means.

The prosecutor stops in front of them, his expression formal - and unreadable apart from that. Does he want a casual chat, or does he want something more? Like, y'know, substantial information?]

Ardeo...and the Bridge, I presume?

[cryptologic]

[ dipper really isn't much of an animal person - that was more mabel's area of expertise. but he had caught wind (pun intended) about supernatural spirits existing in this world, and he can't not try to talk to them. he has so many questions that his brain will literally explode if he doesn't start asking them!!

...but he doesn't approach the one they referred to as "her". she's a little...well. intimidating. given the choice between her and her quadrupedal companion, dipper definitely gravitates towards the latter.

so he tentatively approaches the fox spirit, looking both anxious and eager. ]

Hey! Can I...talk to you for a second? ...Sir?

[ how do you even properly address a spirit, tho. ]

[babermetrics]

[Aha. Leon can guess that this fire dog is "his," after everything Caeli said to him when he met that one. Not that it's not still weird thinking of some burning dog-thing as having any connection to him at all, but hey, it could definitely be worse. Too bad it wasn't a hot (ha ha, get it?) chick . . . but it seems friendlier and more relatable than the others do.

And it wants to help.

Leon could really get behind that at this point. He heads over to where Ardeo is trotting around.]

You're gonna do somethin', right? This is waaaay worse than the stupid flood! I'll give you all the sparkly things I've got, I swear!

[Which is not a small number. There are like twelve immediately visible pieces of jewelry on his person.]

[sewayaku]

[ "she" is apparently a pretty big deal, and when the two strangers appear, only one appears feminine - not that he's any good at discerning the gender of a flaming fox thing. Zara's still seeking answers, and the tree-woman seems like she might have some. Honestly, she's actually very intimidating, but he's walked into a literal den of wolves to accomplish what he has to before; this surely can't be as bad.

The short-statured Rabitz approaches her with purpose, offering a small, formal bow before addressing her. ]

Excuse me, miss. Are you who we've been waiting for?

[reprizesal]

[Sayo is usually a quiet spirit. But when he saw the two spirits, his silence is fueled by mostly awe and some surprise.

He quickly dusts some dirt from his attire, which was rather pointless after being in this jungle for a few days, before he gives them a bow.]

Hello, I'm Sayo Samonji.

["Sparkly things"... He recalls receiving something sparkly when he visited the shrine. Is that shrine dedicated to this incredibly chatty fox spirit? Inwardly, he thinks Kogitsunemaru or Nakigitsune's fox might like him. So chatty...]

Are you the spirit of the shrine in the shopping district?

[Sayo doesn't want to jump to conclusion before he brings up "I remember the stickers". Maybe. Or maybe he shouldn't bring it up?]

[failsaver]

[ Unlike dogs, foxes are actually common where Ket comes from. He's chased, talked to and attempted to pet his fair share, but none of them ever talked back, and none of them were made of fire.

ALL THE MORE REASON FOR HIM TO TRY THE AFOREMENTIONED THINGS. Ket'll be chasing after Ardeo with the excitement of a newborn puppy, all too keen to pet his fiery tail. ]

Hey, hey, Sir Fox! Sir Fire Fox? Sir Fire Fox-chan??? Wait up!

[niceguypose]

[Rock Lee stumbles over towards the strange beings and presents himself with a polite bow.]

G-good day! You appear to be... ah... very important people!!

Is there anything that you need?!

[bewrightback]

[Phoenix approaches cautiously as he examines the spirit-y creatures, and he gives a meek wave.]

Um... Hello?

[His suit is mostly tattered and grimey at this point. His blue suit jacket has been tied around his waist, and his red tie has been fashioned into a headband, but he still bears his attorney's badge, now attached to his shirt.]

I come in peace!

[dereban]

You sound rather happy that there's a bunch of us here.

[ There's only the slightest quirk of her lips as she leans to one side, planting her hand on her hip as she stifles the longest of yawns. Look, she hasn't slept in six days, give her a break... ]

[topscores]

[What a cheerful...thing...

He regards Ardeo as it keeps on with its commentary, and wanders over to it.]

Help how? Some pointers to edible stuff would help, you know.

[He's kind of rude. Ignore him.]

[meatthefuture]

[hey, it's a shiny interesting fox thing! Luffy's just going to follow it around as it sniffs, curious about what it is and what it's doing... and maybe if it's tasty, but he hasn't decided if it's too interesting to eat yet]

[digiteyesed]

[This was really eerie. It's her first time seeing spirits or elementals, and Ene really has no idea what to do with this. Who is 'she'? And the fox?? Are these the guys with the shrines? What is happening.

Welp, standing there confused isn't going to do anything, time to go talk to them. The fox seems yappier and more likely to talk to her so she'll try him first. Hopefully she can get something out of 'her' later.]

Ohhh, are you here to help? We could really use some of that, you know.

[antagonize]

[HE'S NOT SURE IF THIS CAN ACTUALLY BE CONSIDERED HELPING... But. You know. Details. He should probably avoid voicing that if he wants to successfully approach.]

So, does that mean if I ask nicely you'll tell me where we were really supposed to land? Or is it a surprise?

[Since, judging by the bits and pieces of the conversation he overheard, he gets the distinct feeling this camping trip wasn't intentional.]

[yourotherleft]

[Zoro doesn't even notice the earth spirit, blending in with the trees as she does. He didn't actually intend to end up near them anyway, it's completely on accident. He's lost, thanks to getting separated from the hunting party. He'll find his way back to them on his own, but meanwhile...

There's a chattery fox-fire crossing his path, and he can't help but stop and stare. There's a lot about it that evokes memory: the Mera-Mera Fruit, Foxfire Kin'emon, and his own building wish to learn to cut fire the way he can stone and steel. But he wouldn't cut something that can speak for itself and isn't a threat.

Instead, he just stops in his tracks and cocks his head, looking at the strange sight.]

The hell is this, now?

[cordated]

[ when they arrive, makoto's beside himself in slightly collapsed disconcertion — the same unease he'd felt upon seeing those two strange figures once the floods receded. he hadn't approached them, hadn't even had a reason to invite doubt or panic. but after finding himself in the wilderness for days on the end, there's a necessity in approaching the unknown, even if his fears won't entirely abate.

they're both fairly intimidating, every creature falling silent as if the world itself shifted to accommodate them, but he approaches the one closest to him, carefully working out the knots in his voice. ]

Hello! You're the one everyone was waiting for, right?

[ makoto flusters, visibly anxious, hands clasping and unclasping at his sides. ]

Are we supposed to be here?

[yaayaa]

[Ah, a scary spirit...and a fox! Despite all that's happened in this jungle so far, Naki's curiosity is still pretty strong, and he's always had a weakness for foxes, which means he can't help coming closer.

Not that he's going to say anything. No, he just stares, and crouches, and occasionally steals glances at the earthy one....]

[isolophobia]

[ Pitch is already irritable after no decent sleeping, and therefore no adult dreams to corrupt and use, let alone the pure strength of children's dreams. This whole wretched planet was teeming with life, and possibility. But he had become too specialized, too different, or just too weak. ]

So is this why they can see me, then? To make certain all will be able to watch me fade away like mist?

[ Pitch wasn't honestly expecting either one to answer. Honestly he was just thinking out loud. He'd been so pleased to be seen at first...but having some time to think things over, Pitch really wasn't sure about all this. He was being utterly sincere when he said he longed for a family. But this wasn't his family, was it? ]

The abandoned mortal settlement Can't it be made safe? Let them sleep there.

[flaredo]

[ Yeah, forget the scary lady, she's already crouching down to admire the fox. ]

Aren't you pretty?